In Holden, Lane blasts Ferguson, but selectman holds firm

Published Tuesday December 4, 2012 at 6:00 am

Updated Tuesday December 4, 2012 at 1:34 pm

The controversy surrounding the objections of Selectman Mark Ferguson over giving podium time to Chairman Duncan Leith of the Wachusett Regional School District at the Nov. 19 selectmen’s meeting continued last night.

Three people stepped to the podium during the citizen’s address portion of the selectmen’s meeting with differing opinions on the incident — including Mr. Ferguson himself.

Former Wachusett Principal Hal Lane, a one-time state legislator, decried the actions of Mr. Ferguson on Nov. 19 — leaving the meeting as Mr. Leith was about to speak — as “arrogant” and “juvenile,” and asked the board to take action.

“The board has the right to censure elected officials who violate town rules or who resort to antics not consistent with the charter of the town or who act in ways that bring embarrassment to the town,” Mr. Lane said. “I believe this action should be taken by you tonight or whenever you can.”

Mr. Ferguson had been protesting the school district’s not supplying selectmen with more than 4,000 pages of documents showing line item expenditures of the budget. His protest met with approval last night from Holden resident Edwin Meyer, long a critic of the school committee and Mr. Leith. He called once again for the resignation of Mr. Leith and senior representatives of the committee for what he said was their lack of financial oversight.

“I applaud Selectman Mark Ferguson for having the guts to walk out on Duncan Leith,” Mr. Meyer said.

Mr. Ferguson himself stepped to the podium as a private citizen and reiterated that his board’s request for the budget still had not been met. Mr. Leith said at the committee’s Nov. 27 meeting that the district budget could be found online, but Mr. Ferguson said the 12 pages that could be found online did not contain the information about expenditures that the board was seeking.

The board made a request in August for certain documents to back up the budget in the aftermath of revelations in July of overspending and underforecasting amounting to nearly $3 million for fiscal 2012 and 2013 and the resulting firing of Business Manager Peter Brennan. But the district replied that the more than 4,000 pages requested would require the town to pay more than $2,000, or 50 cents per page, in copy costs.

Selectmen agreed last night to ask once again for electronic copies instead.

Mr. Ferguson suggested that he would be happy to pay 20 percent of the cost to get the copies they requested.